THE USE OF THE BRIDLE. 41 



while it gains in the powerful leverage o'f the curb 

 a restraint few horses are resolute enough to defy. 

 In skilful hands, varying, yet harmonising, the manipu- 

 lation of both, as a musician plays treble and bass 

 on the pianoforte, it would seem to connect the rider's 

 thought with the horse's movement, as if an electric 

 chain passed through wrist, and ringer, and mouth, from 

 the head of the one to the heart of the other. The 

 bearing and touch of this instrument can be so varied 

 as to admit of a continual change in the degree of 

 liberty and control, of that give-and-take which is the 

 whole secret of comfortable progression. While the 

 bridoon or snaffle-rein is tightened, the horse may 

 stretch his neck to the utmost, without losing that con- 

 fidence in the moral support of his rider's hand which 

 is so encouraging to him if unaccompanied by pain. 

 When the curb is brought into play, he bends his 

 neck at its pressure to a position that brings his hind- 

 legs under his own body and his rider's weight, from 

 which collected form alone can his greatest efforts 

 be made. Have your curb-bit sufficiently powerful, if 

 not high in the port, at any rate long in the cheek, your 

 bridoon as thick as your saddler can be induced to 

 send it. With the first you bring a horse's head into 

 the right place, with the second, if smooth and very 



